There are literally dozens, if not hundreds of coolers on the market today that range in price between a few dollars to hundreds of dollars. All are designed to keep items cold when you add ice, but is the price you pay relative to ice keeping ability?

That was the question I hoped to answer by conducting my own “cooler research project.”

Let me first lay the groundwork for my research. Get a couple of the everyday bargain-basement coolers, and compare them to a couple of the premium coolers that are on the market today. I had a couple of the cheapo coolers but had to borrow a couple of the premium coolers from friends or businesses to conduct my test.

My thought was this — fill each cooler to capacity with ice and weigh it before and after filling. Note the weight of each and weigh it every 24 hours or so after draining the melted ice.

My theory was that this would give me an ice loss percentage, and it should be relevant for comparison’s sake when trying to see which one performed the best, or worst. The percentage of ice loss would be relevant no matter what size the cooler was, because it would be based upon a percentage and not total pounds.

My laboratory was my garage, and the two tests that I conducted would take a little over two weeks. Test one would test the ice retention of a Yeti 45, a Pelican 35, a Grizzly 16, an Igloo Max Cold and a small Styrofoam cooler.

Interestingly, theYeti 45 was a 37.6-quart cooler, the Pelican 35 was a 40.7 qt. cooler and the Grizzly 16 came in at about 18 qts. So, first and foremost, just because a cooler has a number on it doesn’t mean that’s its capacity. Temperatures during my first test were in the 70’s and 80’s outdoors. I figure my garage was a bit cooler, and the coolers were sitting on concrete in the shade.

I’m sure there’s a scientist out there that’s already saying that my test is flawed for one reason or another, but this is what I did and it made sense to me. After all, with coolers touting to keep ice for 7-9 days, I had to test that theory.

They may be wildly stronger, but do they keep ice longer? The results were about to tell me if spending $329 on a premium cooler is a good investment vs. spending $50 on an “everyday” cooler brand.

Test No. 1 was conducted over six days, and the overall winner in ice retention was the Pelican 35. It retained 84 percent of the original ice while the loser was the Styrofoam cooler, which didn’t keep ice longer than three days.

The Pelican was a sturdy, well-built, thick-walled cooler that has a lid that creates a great seal, which gives it great ice keeping ability. In a close second place was the Yeti 45, with only 6 percent difference in the two. The Pelican held about three quarters more ice, so they were both similar in capacity. The Igloo was third and lost 96 percent of its ice in six days, which was about 12 percent worse than the first-place Pelican.

The biggest surprise to me was the Grizzly 16, which only lasted about three days performing slightly better than the Styrofoam. This had me scratching my head because this quality cooler was built well, much like the Yeti and the Pelican, but it failed to retain ice over an extended period. The cooler was much smaller, less than half the size of the others, so that lead me to conduct another test with a comparable-sized Grizzly.

Test No. 2 was over a seven-day period and I tested the same Pelican 35 ($227), a larger Yeti 65($389), a much-larger Grizzly 60($369), the same Igloo Max Cold ($50), and a 52-quart Coleman Extreme ($32). For this test, the Pelican would be the smallest cooler while the Grizzly would be the largest at almost 63 quarts. The Yeti 65 is 57.2 quarts, and the Igloo is just under 45.

I conducted test two in a similar way, but purchased my ice from a local ice plant. The results were similar, but different. The Grizzly and Yeti finished in a virtual tie for first place, retaining approximately 22 percent of their ice over seven days.

The Igloo retained 6 percent while the Pelican retained only 2.5 pounds of its original ice, but it still had ice. The Grizzly and Yeti both retained 13 pounds of ice, and the Igloo retained about 3 pounds. The Coleman Extreme crashed and burned and didn’t make it the seven days.

How could the Pelican 35 be No. 1 in my first test and have a lackluster performance on my second test? That’s a great question, and I think that my original premise of percentage of ice loss being relative was somewhat flawed when comparing larger coolers to smaller coolers.

Note the Grizzly went from virtual last place with the smaller cooler to first place with the larger cooler. The opposite was true for the Pelican, which proves that size does matter, despite what you’ve been told.

Cooler manufacturers advise you to keep the water in your cooler and the less air you have inside, the better the ice retention. That is good advice, but my test didn’t allow for that. So you could expect even better results by not draining the water.

The Igloo Max Cold cooler performed well, especially considering the price point. It was only 12 percent and 16 percent, respectively, off the first-place finisher in each test, which wasn’t bad in my opinion.

There’s no doubt that the quality of the premium coolers are far superior than the discount store coolers. The molding process used to construct these coolers create a cooler that will last a lifetime and appear to keep ice longer. Most users don’t really care about keeping ice for 6-7 days, but everyone’s needs are different.

In summary, premium coolers do perform better and size does matter, so get the largest cooler you can handle if you want extended ice keeping capability. The Grizzly, Yeti and Pelican are well-made, well-engineered coolers that will last a lifetime, but you’ll pay for it during the initial purchase.

David Mosesso is publisher of The Jonesboro Sun. Email comments to dmosesso@jonesborosun.com.